Since its formation in 1988, South Yorkshire Pensions Authority has worked hard on behalf of its nearly 140,000 members to provide them with a safe and secure future in retirement. Yet while ever it invests in unethical companies or industries, including fossil fuels and tobacco, the Authority is putting these achievements at great risk, by undermining long-term commitments to maximise pension fund investments and to provide good service to fund members. (The over 300 employers contributing to the Authority's schemes are also at risk, as it is they who will ultimately meet any shortfall in the cost of providing scheme benefits to retired members.)
The South Yorkshire Pensions Authority (SYPA) which manages the Local Government Pension Scheme has £259m invested in companies with fossil fuel and fracking connections such as Shell, BP and Glencore, 4.25% of its £6.1bn holdings (as at Mar 2016). It also holds investments in companies which fail to balance their focus on profit with the social and environmental responsibilities expected in the modern day.
We believe it is morally indefensible to invest in companies that destroy our climate and so leave to our children a world where life as we know it is unsustainable. And that it is financially irresponsible to invest in such a high risk sector where the experts agree that the assets are currently wildly overstated and where share prices are certain to plummet.

The Teachers Retirement System (TRS) of Georgia has significant investments in fossil fuel corporations, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Peabody Energy, BP, China Coal Energy, Conoco Phillips, and Royal Dutch Shell. We believe that investing in fossil fuel companies hastens climate change by providing those companies incentives to continue extracting and exploring for dirty forms of energy. Divestment would encourage energy companies to shift their resources toward renewable energy sources.
The recent oil spill in Santa Barbara is just one of the many negative consequences of our reliance on fossil fuels. Besides rising carbon dioxide levels, other problems associated with our dependence on fossil fuels include the numerous wars fought for access to oil, the damage to the environment from fracking, tanker and pipeline spills, and air and water pollution.

There is no pride in taking sponsorship money from companies with such appalling environmental and human rights record.
Turning a never ending global environmental catastrophe into a trusted brand takes talent – and now BP is trying to "pinkwash" its dirty brand by sponsoring LGBT student events.
BP sponsorship has become an increasingly controversial issue in recent years.
Institutions like Tate and British Museum have been the scene of a series of environmental protests over the fact that they take BP sponsorship money. Tate recently lost a three year legal battle over its refusal to disclose how much money it was receiving from BP.
BP’s sponsorship programme enables it to gain a level of social legitimacy that it does not deserve given that it has been responsible for a series of environmental catastrophes like the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and that it has been identified as the corporation that has been historically responsible for the third largest amount of the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu recently called for an ‘anti-apartheid style boycott’ of the institutions that are taking sponsorship money from BP.
More info: http://www.lgbp.info/

Utrecht University facilitates some of the best research institutes on sustainable development and climate change in the world, and supplies its students with top-ranking education on the topics. Additionally, it opened the Green Office Utrecht in 2013 to create a platform for students and staff where sustainable ideas are shaped, plans are put together, and projects are launched; all with the objective of making the University more sustainable.
Yet Utrecht University and its employees are still contributing to climate change indirectly. Utrecht University invests in the fossil fuel industry indirectly through Rabobank, and its staff and faculty do so through the pension fund ABP, which holds over 33 million euro in fossil fuel investments, in companies in like Shell. Investments in fossil fuel companies are morally wrong, because they endanger the future of people and our planet and block the transition to a sustainable energy network.
These investments are not only unethical, but also risky. To achieve the UN’s target of keeping global temperature rise below 2°C, around 80% of the fossil fuel reserves currently mapped can never be burnt. Leading research warns of the ‘Carbon Bubble’, much like the Dot-Com Bubble of the 90s, where fossil fuel investments will quickly lose their value as a result of global climate change policy. The ‘Carbon Bubble’ poses a risk for the University’s financial health and that of its employees’ pensions.

Those we have elected are failing the Australian people and they are failing the natural world. They are allowing the cruel and unnecessary slaughter of sea creatures and the ruin of undersea habitats.
We demand our Governments manage natural resources and the global commons solely in the best interests of present and future citizens. Our oceans should not be exploited by individual nations or corporations but held in trust for the benefit of all and for future generations.

There are 2 very good reasons why this makes sense.
First, the UK government subsidizes oil, coal and gas by over £2 billion every year, and the companies (like Shell, BP, Centrica etc.) will ask for even more money – that’s our tax money – this year because the oil price is low, and finding it and drilling it out of the ground is costing more.
So why should we help these companies to balance their books? For the G20 countries alone – and the UK is a major member – these subsidies are a massive £59 billion ($88billion). According to The Economist, the global figure is $550 billion.
As described February 3rd in The Guardian Sustainable Business, US government support for shale gas fracking in this low oil price regime is like supporting the failing banks during the mortgage crisis that led to the crash of 2008. Will our next UK government think that our own oil and gas companies are also (just like the banks) “too big to fail”?
As The Economist put it, we have a once in a generation opportunity to “Seize the Day” and fix our energy policy, and why not.
Secondly, and closer to our hearts, our legacy to our children and grandchildren should be a sustainable world, in which they can thrive, free from fear of war and irreversible climate change. In October 2014 Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, stated that the majority of burnable fossil reserves may be considered unburnable if global temperature increases are to be limited to our internationally agreed target of 2degrees Celsius. Nature Magazine’s report in January 2015 shows real data to confirm this.
Also in October Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti warned MPs that global warming, particularly from global reliance on oil, natural gas and other fossil fuels would be a driver of global instability, resulting from conflict over resources, and from a growing number of “natural” disasters due to climate change.
Continued reliance on fossil fuels threatens our children’s legacy of peace and sustainability.
We have a golden opportunity to help secure our future; let’s stop these subsidies now.

Kia Kaha Dunedin City Council
Dunedin City Councillors will vote whether to divest from fossil fuels sometime between April-May 2015. Oil Free Otago strongly support our Councillors and urge them to do the right thing for our climate and our future.
The DCC voted in May 2014 to endorse a policy direction to develop a Socially Responsible Investment Policy for its Waipori Fund, which would intend to exclude direct investment in fossil fuel extraction, tobacco, armaments, gambling and pornography.
The DCC is currently writing up a document to be presented to Council for a final vote, confirming whether Dunedin will truly become the first New Zealand city to divest from fossil fuels.
Kia kaha DCC! Be the first NZ city to Divest from Fossil Fuels! We support you!
Sign this petition supporting DCC's vote to divest!
Like & Share on Facebook: Dunedin Divests!
Write to the DCC (dcc@dcc.govt.nz) to express how important it is that the motion to divest be adopted!
Contact OilFreeOtago@gmail.com to get involved!
Check out who's already divested:
http://gofossilfree.org/commitments/

Global accords between nations take many years to develop, and many more years to ratify, implement and ultimately benefit from. This one cannot wait any longer. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference of the parties in Paris 2015 (COP21) is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our leaders to take action and create real and lasting change that benefits everyone, everywhere.
There is a lot of work left to be done. But there has also been a lot of progress since Kyoto in 1997, Copenhagen in 2009, and Lima in December 2014. Lima began the negotiation and drafting of a landmark agreement to be signed at the Paris conference. The goal is in sight.
We cannot miss this opportunity. We must stand up, raise our voices, and demand that our leaders agree on climate action once and for all.

BP is an official partner of this year's Glasgow Commonwealth Games. For a small contribution, BP paint themselves as generous, socially responsible and "green" - when nothing could be further from the truth.
- BP will 'donate a tree' for each participant in its carbon offsetting scheme, but the amount of CO2 they will absorb is almost nothing when compared to BP's emissions worldwide.
- BP have set up a 'Young Leaders' scheme but it is young people who will have to deal with their legacy of runaway climate change and oil spills.
- The US has brought in sanctions against the Russian-owned oil company, Rosneft, but BP have clung to its 19.75% share in the company.
- BP have nestled its brand alongside our elite athletes in order to keep their toxic legacy in the Gulf of Mexico and attempts to drill in the Arctic out of people's minds.
It's time to stop the greenwash and deny BP the role of 'corporate partner' at all future sporting events!

Colorado has fragile wildlife. The state's income relies on tourism which revolves around aesthetics of the land and the unique climate Colorado has. The profits of clean energy and everlasting income from tourism greatly outweighs the 1-2 years of minute income petroleum companies would bring while destroying the aesthetic potential for tourism. They have proven throughout the past century that petroleum companies cannot be trusted when it comes to public service and general welfare for society. Let's lead the world in innovation like we used to and throw out the oil companies. Leading the world in energy would cause a general economic boost and open more doors especially in job growth and exports.